Meg Cabot - Missing: Missing You

Missing You
Cabot's 46th book
5th book featuring Jessica Mastriani, girl with psychic abilities caused by her being hit by lightning
268 pages
Simon & Schuster

Lightning girl all grown-up - the final exciting installment!

All Jessica Mastriani ever wanted was to be normal. But a walk home in a particularly stormy night changed all that. Struck by lightning, Jess suddenly developed psychic powers - and the ability to find anyone, anywhere, dead or alive.

Her newfound talent made her invaluable for the US government, but her work for them took another terrible toll. Now back home, aged nineteen, and with her powers gone, Jess is Lightning Girl no more. Starting again in a new town, intent onfinding a new life, she is less than happy when her ex, Rob Wilkins, shows up at her door,begging for her help in finding his long-lost sister. But how can Jess find anyone - let alone the sister of the man she once loved - when she can't even find herself?

I was on no-book-buying! I mean it! But when I spend some spare time at the book shop and read the first few pages I was hooked and had to get this final installment!

First sentence:
"My name is Jessica Mastriani."

Earlene Fowler - Fool's Puzzle

Fool's Puzzle
Fowler's 1st book
1st book featuring Albenia "Benni" Harper, folk art museum curator in San Celina, California
237 pages
Berkley Prime Crime

Meet Benni Harper... a spirited ex-cowgirl, quilter, and folk art expert who's staking out her own corner of the contemporary American West. She's got an eye for murderous designs - and a talent for piecing together the most complex and cold-blooded crimes...

Leaving behind memories of her late husband, Benni's making a fresh start... Moving to the trendy California town of San Celina, she takes an exciting new job as director of a folk art museum. While setting up an exhibit of handmade quilts, she stumbles upon the body of a brutally stabbed artist - and hopes to conduct an investigation on her own. She crosses paths with the local police chief, who thinks this short and sassy cowgirl should leave detecting to the cops and join him for dinner. But it's hard to keep a country girl down, and soon Benni uncovers an alarming pattern of family secrets, small-town lies - and the shocking truth about the night her husband died...

The book was recommended to me by some wonderful friends.

First sentence:
"My day didn't start with murder, although the thought crossed my mind."

Lee Harris - The Passover Murder

The Passover Murder
Harris' 7th book
7th book featuring Christine Bennett, ex-nun and college teacher in New York
274 pages
Fawcett Gold Medal

Final Questions.
Until someone killed her, the only mystery about adorable Iris Grodnik was why she had never married. But for sixteen years, her strange disappearance and murder during a Passover seder have remained a troubling piece of family history.

Ex-nun Christine Bennett - now married to a New York City cop - reluctantly consents to make one last attempt to find out the truth for Iris's family. However, Christine soon suspects that some of the relatives are not telling her the whole truth...

Then, in the dusty depths of a hall closet, she finds an old leather purse - and her worst forebodings about Iris Grodnik's haunting murder begin to be fulfilled...

I had this book waiting for me and thought it would be fun to actually read it during Passover.

First sentence:
"What I'm really trying to say," my friend Melanie Gross said over the telephone, "is that it's going to be a slightly crazy experience, but I think you'll enjoy it."

Tracy Quan - Diary Of A Manhattan Call Girl

Diary Of A Manhattan Call Girl
Quan's 1st book
1st book featuring Nancy Chan, high-class Manhattan call girl
226 pages
Harper Perennial

This is a fun, witty, sexy, page-turning novel written by a real-life, high-priced Manhattan call girl. This is the diary of Nancy Chan, busy career girl, in her thirties, newly engaged and trying to balance job and romance. But Nancy is a high-class call girl, a fact her banker fiance, Matt does not know (he thinks she's a copy editor) and Nancy wants to keep it that way. With one foot in the bedrooms of her rich and demanding clients and one in the world of her fiance and his family, Nancy demonstrates, in her inimitable fashion, that if you know the dance, you can keep those two worlds from colliding. At least for a while. This wonderfully intelligent, sexually frank, rollicking novel gives us fresh insight into the machinations and politics of being an expensive call girl in the modern world. Quan pulls no punches, gives no apologies, and has written one of the best and most honest books yet on the topic. [synopsis from Amazon.de]

This is a BC bookring I have to finish and send on as soon as manageable. Can't wait to read it.

First sentence:
"Today I had the most embarrassing experience - with one of my regulars."

Katie MacAlister - Noble Destiny

Noble Destiny
MacAlister's 3rd book, this time featuring Lady Charlotte Collins and Alasdair MacGregor, Lord Carlisle
366 pages
Leisure

Dear Worthy Reader,

I take quill in hand to warn you of the inaccurate picture hinted at in this very tome of my modest self. A poor widow, I returned to England eager to take my place in the ton, only to find myself shunned by all. My one choice was to marry again, and who can chastise me for picking a groom who combined those attributes - wealth, a title, and good looks - that would ensure my utter happiness.

I know you will understand my frustration when Alasdair McGregor, the manly personification of those attributes, cruelly refused to be the answer to my problems. In fact, I was forced by Dare's obstinacy to take extreme action - the faulty codpiece that led to our marriage, the weding that was literally a circus, and, of course, the time I shot Dare to cheer him up.

Not even an annoyance such as the loss of Dare's fortune could stand between me and what I wanted most: the love of my husband. I am confident that you will disregard comments from those jealous ladies who refer to my having trapped Dare into an unwanted union, and instead look beneath the obvious to read the true story of our love.

Most humbly yours,
Lady Charlote Collins

I got the first Noble historical (Noble Intentions) through Bookcrossing and enjoyed MacAlister's style. It is different from her paranormal novels, but I enjoy both styles a lot. I just have to read this second Noble historical.

First sentence:

Stephanie Barron - Jane And The Unpleasantness At Scargrave Manor

Jane And The Unpleasantness At Scargrave Manor
Barron's 1st book / Francine Mathews' 4th book
1st book featuring Jane Austen, famous author in 19th century Great-Britain
318 pages
Bantam

For everyone who loves Jane Austen... a marvelously entertaining new series that turns the incomparable author into an extraordinary sleuth!

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor

On a visit to the estate of her friend, the young and beautiful Isobel PAyne, Countess of Scargrave, Jane bears witness to a tragedy. Isobel's housband - a gentleman of mature years - is felled by a mysterious and agonizing ailment. The Earl's death seems a cruel blow of fate for the newly married Isobel. Yet the bereaved widow soon finds that it's only the beginning of her misfortune... as she receives a sinister missibe accusing her and the Earl's nephew of adultery - and murder. Desperately afraid that the letter will expose her to the worst sort of scandal, Isobel begs Jane for help. And Jane finds herself embroiled in a perilous investigation that will soon have her following a trail of clues that leads all the way to Newgate Prison and the House of Lords - a trail that may well place Jane's own person in the gravest jeopardy.

I'm reading this one for pleasure and for a buddy read in early April.

First sentence:

Jane's Introduction

17 March 1803
No.4 Sydney Place, Bath
~
"When a young lady of more fashion than means has the good sense to win the affection of an older gentleman, a widower of high estate and easy circumstances, it is generally observed that the match is an intelligent one on both sides."

Shirley Damsgaard - Witch Way To Murder

Witch Way To Murder
Damsgaard's 1st book
1st book featuring Abby & Ophelia Jensen, two witches in a small town in Iowa
292 pages
Avon

An embarrassment of witches
Ophelia Jensen wishes she was just your typical, thiry-something librarian. Unfortunately, she's been burdened with psychic powers - an unwanted "gift" she considers inconvenient at best and at worst downright dangerous. Her kindly old grandmother Abby, however, has no compunctions about the paranormal, being a practicing witch with unique abilities of her own.

And sometimes the otherworldly arts do come in handy - like when the arrival of a mysterious, good-looking stranger to their normally tranquil corner of Iowa seems to trigger an epidemic of catastrophes, from the theft of bomb-making materials to a murdered corpse dumped in Abby's backyard.

Luckily Ophelia and Abby are on the case and determined to make things right. But it'll take more than magick to get out of the boiling cauldron of lethal trouble they're about to land themselves in.

This book was recommended by a fellow ARMie and when I ordered the DVDs to Grey's Anatomy season 2 part 1, I just added it to the shopping cart!

First sentence:
"Rising panic clenched my stomach."

J.D. Robb - Naked In Death

Naked In Death
Robb's 1st book
1st book featuring Eve Dallas, New York police detective
305 pages
Piatkus

'Crime and punishment is Lieutenant Eve Dallas's business. Murder her speciality...'
Named by the social worker who rescued her as a child, Eve Dallas is now a New York police detective who lives for her job. In over ten years on the force, she's seen it all - and knows her survival depends on her instincts. But she's going against every warning telling her not to get involved with Roarke, a charismatic Irish billionaire - and a suspect in Eve's latest murder investigation.

This is a first in series and another read for the TBR challenge, as I just discovered. It is set about 50 years in the future, IIRC, and it's been on my shelf for ages, well, maybe a year, as I got it through Bookcrossing...

First sentence:
"She woke in the dark."

Kerrelyn Sparks - How To Marry A Millionaire Vampire

How To Marry A Millionaire Vampire
Sparks' 2nd book, this time featuring vampire Roman Draganesti and dentist Shanna Whelan
371 pages
Avon

Nobody said love was perfect...
Roman Draganesti is charming, handsome, rich... he's also a vampire. But this vampire just lost one of his fangs sinking his teeth into something he shouldn't have. Now he has one night to find a dentist before his natural healing abilities close the wound, leaving him a lop-sided eater for all eternity.

Things aren't going well for Shanna Whelan, either. After witnessing a gruesome murder, she's next on the mob's hit list. And her career as a dentist appears to be on a downward spiral because she's afraid of blood. When Roman rescues her from an assassination attempt, she wonders if she's found the one man who can keep her alive. Though the attraction between them is immediate and hot, can Shanna conquer her fear of blood to fix Roman's fang? And if she does, what will prevent Roman from using his fangs on her...?

This is one of the Bookcrossing book rings I have waiting on my shelves and I just started it - meaning I've read about two pages. I can't wait to read more and it will hopefully turn out a good read!

First sentence:
"Roman Draganesti knew someone had quietly entered his home office."

Laura Childs - Gunpowder Green

Gunpowder Green
Childs' 2nd book
2nd in the Tea Shop Mysteries featuring Theodosia Browning
244 pages
Berkley Prime Crime Mystery

Tea shop owner Theodosia Browning knows that something's brewing in the high society of Charleston - something other than her newest tea...

The Indigo Tea Shop, Charleston's favorite spot of tea, has just come out with its latest flavor: Gunpowder Green. Theodosia Browning cannot wait to hear its praises as it is unveiled at the annual yacht race. But when she hears the crack of an antique gun meant to end the race, a member of Charleston's elite falls dead. Theodosia has a hunch that his demise was no accident - and will go out of her way to prove it. But if she doesn't act fast, Theo will find herself in hot water with some boiling-mad Charlestonians - and more than a little gun-chai...


This is a buddy read for ARM. I started reading it yesterday on the train and I really enjoy it. It is just great to meet all the characters again!

Oh, one thing: Actually, the latest flavor from the Indigo Tea Shop is not Gunpowder Green (a delicious green tea, I'll drink while reading the book, by the way), but a blend of Gunpowder Green and fresh mint.

First sentence:
"Theodosia Browning reached up and removed the tortoiseshell clip that held her auburn locks tightly in place."

Barbara Seranella - No Human Involved

No Human Involved
Seranella's 1st book
1st book featuring Munch Mancini, ex-druggie and jailbird in 1970s Los Angeles, California
275 pages
Harper Choice

A strung-out waif-cum-ace auto mechanic, Munch Mancini is trying to get clean and get her act together. But temptation and problems keep pushing her closer to the edge. Lke the murder of her abusive father, "Flower George". The cops have her pegged for the crime, and now she's got to stay out of sight of a certain cop named mace St. John. At first it's easy because Mace isn't looking that hard. But when his prime suspect becomes linked to the gruesome murders of several not-so-innocent women, the weary homicide detective goes into overdrive. If Mace wants to solve these murders, he'll have to find Munch. And if Munch wants a new life, she's got to find a way to cut a deal. But as they will both discover, there's a precarious line between trust and betrayal - and the temptation to cross may be too strong to resist.

I'm reading this one in memory of Barbara Seranella, a wonderful person who left far too early. I meant to get and read this book for far too long, I'm afraid :-(

First (two) sentence(s):
"Buy you a drink?"
Munch turned to size up the man who had spoken to her.

Lee Harris - The Thanksgiving Day Murder

The Thanksgiving Day Murder
Harris' 6th book
6th book featuring Christine Bennett, ex-nun and college teacher in New York
245 pages
Fawcett Gold Medal

A celebration of abundance becomes a day of loss.
More than a year ago Natalie Gordon went to buy a balloon at the Thanksgiving Day Parade and dissolved into thin air. The police and a private investigator still have no leads. So when Natalie's despairing husband pleads with ex-nun Christine Bennett to help, she can't say no.

Not only are Natalie's present whereabouts a mystery, but so is her past. Someone has stripped her personnel file in her old office. Even her husband knows strangely little about her.

Starting with a cardboard box of Natalie's belongings - a few books, keys, some cosmetics - Chris searches for a life someone has tried very hard to erase and finds a cast of characters so chilling that murder seems not only inevitable but likely to happen again....

I've started this book earlier this morning on my way to work, after finishing Them Bones last night and in dire need of a comfort read. Chris just works that way for me :-) I'm already at page 80 and if nothing gets into my way, I should be able to finish it this weekend!

First sentence:
I drove my cousin Gene back to the residence for retarded adults after mass that very cold Sunday morning.

Rachel Gibson - S ex, Lies, And Online Dating

S ex, Lies, And Online Dating
Gibson's 10th book, this time featuring Lucy Rothchild, mystery author, and Quinn McIntyre, Boise cop
352 pages
Avon

S ex...
What is it about men anyway? Bad cars, bad jobs, even bad teeth - nothing convinces them that they can't snare a Size Two Babe witha D-cup chest. And after way too many internet dates with men named "luvstick" and "bigdaddy182", Lucy Rothchild should know.

Lies...
Butt sitting across from her now is "hardluvnman", and he seems different - sensitive, honest, and hot! He says he's a plumber, while Lucy claims she's a nurse! She's really a mystery writer, dating online while researching her next book. Hey, everyone lies a little, don't they?

And Online Dating...
But Quinn's really an undercover cop hunting down a serial killer, and he sees Lucy as his top suspect. And while he could really go for this smart, sexy woman with the killer bod - if that's the only thing "killer" about her - he knows he needs to wine and dine her and discover the truth. Hey, he realizes the dating scene can be deadly - but this is ridiculous!

I held this book in my hands quite a few times before I finally got it - with a gift certificate my brother had given me for Christmas. It sounds too much fun to read to skip this book - and besides the "Size Two Babe" part, it also sounds rather familiar ;-)

First paragraph:
[my addition: E-mail from Lucy to her friends, Adele, Clare, and Maddie]
Hey all,

Tonight is my last Internet coffee date. His name is hardluvnman. I pray he has his teeth.

Wish me luck,
Lucy

Carolyn Haines - Them Bones

Them Bones
Haines' 4th book
1st book featuring Sarah Booth Delaney, Southern Belle in Mississippi
318 pages
Bantam Books

Meet Sarah Booth Delaney... an unconventional southern belle whose knack for uncovering the truth is about to make her the hottest detective in Zinnia, Mississippi... if it doesn't make her the deadest.

No self-respecting lady would allow herself to end up in Sarah Booth's situation. Unwed, unemployed, and over thirty, she's flat broke and about to lose the family plantation. Not to mention being haunted by the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, who never misses an opportunity to remind her of her sorry state - or to suggest a plan of action, like ransoming her friend's prize pooch to raise some cash.

But soon Sarah Booth's walk on the criminal side leads her deeper into unladylike territory, and she's hired to solve a murder. Did gorgeous, landed Hamilton Garrett V really kill his mother twenty years ago? And if so, what is Sarah Booth doing falling for this possible murderer? When she asks one too many questions and a new corpse turns up, she is suddenly a suspect herself... and Sarah Booth finds that digging up the bones of the past could leave her rolling over in her grave.

This is a group read for laaaate February, but I just can't wait to find out what Sarah Booth is like.

First sentence:
"Women in my family have a penchant for madness and mysterious "womb" disorders."

Sarah Strohmeyer - Bubbles Ablaze

Bubbles Ablaze
Strohmeyer's 3rd book
3rd book featuring Bubbles Yablonsky, hair dresser and journalist in a small Pennsylvania town
309 pages
Signet

Bubbles Yablonsky has been summoned. Heeding the call from her boss at the News-Times, she's racing her Camaro toward an abandoned coal mine and a potentially big story. What she finds is the love of her life, Steve Stiletto, knocked unconscious - and another man with a hole in his chest. The bizarre scene will lead the not-so-dumb blonde and her main squeeze straight into the heart of coal country - and a strange conspiracy linked to a cadre of women known as the Slagville Sirens, a local hot spot called Limbo, and a mysterious assassin who wants Bubbles' investigation to go up in flames...

I have enjoyed the series a lot in the past and can hardly wait to get to this third installment. Bubbles crakcs me up with all the crazy things happening to her!

First sentence:
"Looking back, I guess my first mistake was to assume that a rookie reporter could persue both a hot story and a hot sex life."

Susan Sussman with Sarajane Avidon - Audition for Murder

Audition for Murder
Sussman's 15th book & Avidon's 1st book
1st book featuring Morgan Taylor, a struggling actress
250 pages
Worldwide Mystery

Leave it to a diva like the aging and taciturn Lily London to steak the show by dying during strugglingactress Morgan Taylor's audition. Okay, so being upstaged by a corpse has its berks - at least she might get a callback. But Morgan isn't quite as confident when she finds out how Lily was murdered

Sure, Lily was supposed to audition with Morgan who had jokingly left a message threatening to kill Lily if she was late, but really, she'd never be that desperate for work. She hoped. Then another corpse takes center stage, and things are getting... dramatic, especially when a killer decides it's time to make Morgan's next curtain call her last.

This is my first book for the 2007 TBR challenge and I hope I picked a good one for a starter. The book has been on my shelves for at least a year now, more likely 2, and I think it really is time for me to read it.

First sentence (more like paragraph, this time):
"It is a small theft. What harm, after all, in one purloined piece of fruit?"

Cathy Pickens - Southern Fried

Southern Fried
Pickens' 1st book
1st book featuring Avery Andrews, South Carolina lawyer
326 pages
St. Martin's Minotaur

Attorney Avery Andrews left her BMW behind in Columbia, South Carolina, along with her job at a high-powered law firm. She's come back home to Dacus where the vehicle of choice is a pickup truck with a dog chained in the back. Avery wants time to rethink her career and her life. What she gets is a bossy great aunt drumming up clients and dragging her to social teas. That's how Avery ends up hired by a local factory to help with a messy environmental problem. But she's at Luna Lake because an old high-school classmate is trying to get her attention with a half-baked stung, when divers find a car containing a corpse. Now, the discovery of the dead body sweeps into a red-hot case... and into the sizzling secrets of a small-town life, where some people get away with murder.

This book is yet another group read for February ;-) Just gotta love those mysteries...

First sentence:
"A couple of county cop cars and several pickups, one loaded with an air compressor, crowded around the boat landing at Luna Lake."

Mary Daheim - Just Desserts

Just Desserts
Daheim's 1st book
1st book featuring Judith McMonigle, bed and breakfast owner in Seattle, Washington
220 pages
Avon

When the garishly grotesque clan of wealthy carpet-sweeper magnate Otto Brodie sweeps down upon Judith McMonigle's Hillside Manor Inn, it looks like there'll be a wild night of drinking, dining, and fortune-telling in the offing. But when their soothsayer-for-hire Madame Gushenka drops dead after someone douses her tea leaves with bug killer, harried hostess Judith and her irrepressible cousin Renie are left to clean up the mess. One of the Brodie bunch would dearly love to sweep the Madame's murder under the rug, however, and that might mean eliminating the nosy Ms. McMonigle as well. But with the help of her one-time beau, policeman Joe Flynn, Judith is determined to rattle the dust off some closeted family skeletons, in order to coax a killer out of hiding before coffee is served.

This is a buddy read for which I've been waiting quite a while now, and in early February, it will finally be time to discuss the book *bg*

First sentence:
"Judith Grover McMonigle thrust the phone away from her ear a good two feet, knocked her coffee mug off the kitchen counter, and booted her cat, Sweetums, into the opencupboard under the sink."

Kate Borden - Death of a Tart

Death of a Tart
Borden's 4th book
1st book featuring Peggy Jean Turner , mayor of Cobb's Landing
197 pages
Berkley Prime Crime Mystery

When single mother Peggy Jean Turner succeeds her late husband as mayor of Cobb's Landing, she faces a major challenge: rescue the New England village from its financial woes. Now she's singing the praises of the wealthy miracle man who bought the local bank. Mayor P.J. Turner thinks Max is a godsend...

Max's plan? Turn Cobb's Landing into a tourist attraction by "going Colonial." So far so quaint, until period clothes and corn husking become mandatory, and baseball and satellite dishes are banned (under the threat of punishment in the stocks). Yet Cobb's Landing is prospering, and who can argue with that? Certainly not Selma, the town tart... since she's just drowned. What's more, the splinters under her fingernails match the same wood once used to torture witches in New England's dishonorable past. It appears someone's taking the ye olde customs to extremes. Now it's up to P.J. to solve the crime and wrestle Cobb's Landing from Max's clutches before more old-fashioned traditions take their toll...

I had actually planned to read this book in February, but I happened to have some time here and so I picked this one. It will be a group read in March, so I might have to take some good notes, just so that I can remember the story and the characters.

First sentence (more like paragraph, this time):
" "Nick? I'm leaving now. Do your homework and don't forget to let the dog in. It's starting to rain. Dry Buster off with the old towel hanging next to the back door. Nicky, are you listening to me?" "

Jacqueline Winspear - Maisie Dobbs

Maisie Dobbs
Winspear's 1st book
1st book featuring Maisie Dobbs, PI in 1920s London
292 pages
John Murray

Introducing the extraordinaire Maisie Dobbs, private investigator in 1920s London. Her first case combines a gripping investigation with a moving portait of love and war. It marks the beginning of a wonderful new detective series.

London, 1929. Having set herself up as a private investigator, Maisie Dobbs is relieved when her first client arrives. Christopher Davenham suspects that his wife is conducting an affair. But Maisie's investigation's confound her expectations at every turn. And she is forced by her findings to revisit her own turbulent experience of the Great War. For Maisie, the boundary between her private and professional life is suddenly blurred.

This is a world still reeling in the aftermath of war, a world in which many secrets lie buried. But Maisie is determined to hunt down the truth, however painful it might be...

This book is for a buddy read, for which I have to prepare some questions. So far I only started and I hope it will be as interesting a read as I suspect it to be ;-)

First sentence:
"Even if she hadn't been the last person to walk through the turnstile at Warren Street tube station, Jack Barker would have noticed the tall, slender woman in the navy blue thigh-length jacket with a matching pleated skirt short enough to reveal a well-turned ankle."